


Dressing Down

by RoseisaRoseisaRose



Series: Everyday I'm Drabbling [18]
Category: Fire Emblem: Fuukasetsugetsu | Fire Emblem: Three Houses
Genre: Also Hilda Goneril Is A Liar Sheninigans, Also Stable Duty Shenanigans, F/M, It's just a lot of sheninigans you guys, Winter Ball Shenanigans, and one very fancy jacket, pre timeskip
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-23
Updated: 2020-10-23
Packaged: 2021-03-09 01:20:45
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,349
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27155837
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RoseisaRoseisaRose/pseuds/RoseisaRoseisaRose
Summary: It's two hours before the Winter Ball and Leonie is trying her best to understand Lorenz's fashion sensibilities.Written for the Felannie discord drabble challenge; this week's prompt was "Dressing Up"
Relationships: Lorenz Hellman Gloucester/Leonie Pinelli
Series: Everyday I'm Drabbling [18]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1649380
Comments: 17
Kudos: 46
Collections: Those Who Drabble in the Dark





	Dressing Down

Leonie’s first mistake, as usual, was listening to Hilda. She’d been tricked and cajoled by her classmate enough times over the past year to realize that any time Hilda wanted something, the best thing to do was just to walk away. So when Hilda asked if she could skip stable duty that afternoon, Leonie should have known better than to offer to cover for her.

But Hilda had been gushing about that stupid winter’s ball for the past week, or maybe even the past month. On that, at least, she was consistent. Leonie wasn’t sure why Hilda needed the entire afternoon to choose a different dress and maybe put her hair up, but she was pretty sure there were real tears in Hilda’s eyes when she told Lysithea she wasn’t going to have time to get ready if she had to spend all afternoon at the stables. And Leonie, for all her shrewdness, was a complete sucker sometimes.

Hilda had squealed and thrown her arms around Leonie’s neck when she said she could handle stable duty by herself. “Come right to my room when you’re done,” she said solemnly. “I’ll do your hair and makeup and I have a necklace that would go _great_ with that sweater you like so much and . . .”

She trailed off into a litany off all the fun they would have and Leonie more or less tuned her out. Now, standing in the stable yards by herself, she was glad she hadn’t put much stock into Hilda’s plans for the evening. If she was lucky, she’d be able to clean out the stables and maybe only be an hour late to the ball. Not that she _really_ cared. She wasn’t really one for dancing.

Leonie eyed a bundle of hay that needed to be moved into the stable feeding area. It was roughly the size of her, but it was a starting place. Might as well ease into the dirt, she figured, reaching down to pick the bale up.

It wasn’t quite as heavy as she’d feared, but it was definitely a two person job. Still, she made it about five feet towards the stable door (she assumed; it was rather hard to see) before her awkward grip caused her to falter. She stumbled to the side and felt the hay slip from her hands –

– only for another set of hands to catch it, balancing out the bale of hay and allowing Leonie to regain her footing.

“You know, Leonie, I’m fairly sure carrying this is a two person job.”

“I know that, Lorenz! But there’s only one of me here, so unless you know a spell to make my shadow come to life, I’m just going to have to –” Leonie cut off mid sentence and openly stared at Lorenz over the bale of hale between them. “What are you _wearing_?”

Lorenz looked down at his clothes in surprise. It wasn't his typical academy uniform, with the brass buttons and gold thread that somehow seemed more polished and more golden than anyone else in the class. Instead, he was wearing simple trousers of rough homespun material and a loose-fitting shirt with an open collar. Leonie’s eyes darted across him and she was shocked to see a sleeve was actually _fraying_ at the edges.

Lorenz gave her a momentarily confused look, and Leonie wondered if the question was rude, but she plowed ahead. “Is that what noble types wear to these fancy balls?” she asked, incredulous.

Lorenz laughed, evidently extremely amused by the question, and began walking backwards into the stables, balancing the bale of hay carefully between them. Leonie couldn’t help but follow. “Of course not, Leonie, what funny ideas you have sometimes!” he said, and Leonie scowled at him. He stood a little straighter after ducking his head under the stable door. “I will be wearing the same jacket my father wore to the ball during his time at the Officer’s Academy – he had a courier send it earlier this month. The silk lining is said to be imported from Almyra in the tenth century, and the velvet is dyed the color of the Gloucester –”

“That sounds . . . _so_ fancy _,_ ” Leonie interrupted, dropping the bale of hay in its proper place in the stable corner and taking a gasping breath of air. She turned and leaned against a nearby stall, gesturing at Lorenz. “Does the jacket go over that getup, then?”

Lorenz looked at her again as if she’d maybe grown a third ear. “Leonie, one would think you’d never _been_ to a ball,” he said, recovering with a light laugh. “No, I had a suit tailored specifically for tonight. I had to travel two towns over; the tailor here at Garreg Mach really does _not_ understand the proper fashions for the year, or the last decade, or maybe the last century.”

“Sure sure, he sounds terrible,” Leonie said. She had not been to a ball, ever, and she didn’t realize the town surrounding Garreg Mach even had a tailor. But she refused to be distracted. “So why are you _wearing_ that?”

Lorenz frowned. “Well, I figured I would get pretty muddy, cleaning out the stables. It rained a lot last week,” he said. He tilted his head to the side, giving Leonie an appraising glance. “Hilda caught me on my way to the saunas and said you were specifically looking for my help to clean out the stables. Something about needing to get it done quickly so she could help you do her hair for tonight?”

“Um . . . right,” Leonie said. She frowned. “I would’ve thought stable duty was beneath you fancy noble types. Do you even know what you’re supposed to be doing?”

Lorenz looked a little guilty, at this. “Well, it wasn’t _exactly_ what I planned on doing with my time at the Officer’s Academy,” he admitted. “But I’ve recently had a . . . very long chat with Seteth about my training as a paladin, and he made some excellent points about the necessity of understanding the process that grooms and stablehands go through, as well as the importance of building trust with the army horses . . .”

“Wow, Lorenz, that must have been one doozy of a lecture,” Leonie said, grinning. She straightened up and walked towards the back of the stables, where the pitchforks were kept. “What, did he catch you talking to Flayn instead of doing chores?”

“Evidently I’m not supposed to ask Cyril to complete any assigned tasks I find beneath me,” Lorenz muttered, his ears turning pink as he took a pitchfork from Leonie.

She looked at him thoughtfully. “Do you find mucking out the stalls beneath you, then?” she asked. “You weren’t actually assigned this week, you know.”

“I would never consider helping a friend in need to be beneath me, Leonie,” Lorenz said, and he sounded practically solemn. “And Hilda said you were so looking forward to attending tonight.” A brief flash of realization seemed to momentarily cross his face, and he gave Leonie an almost suspicious glance. “You . . . were looking forward to attending the ball tonight, right?”

Leonie laughed. “You know, I think I am,” she said. “If only so I can see you in that silly jacket you’re so excited about.”

Lorenz scowled at her. “When you see it, you’ll understand,” he said defensively. “It really is a Gloucester heirloom.”

Leonie shrugged, already opening the first stall and moving away from the conversation and into work mode. “If you say so,” she said. “But I have to be honest; the stablehand look isn’t half bad on you.”

The funny thing was, she meant it. And when she looked back on that night – the incredible array of food and the uncomfortable jewels Hilda flung around her neck and the very, _very_ silly jacket Lorenz wore and their one awkward, shuffling dance where Leonie stepped on his feet every other measure and he pretended not to notice – when she looked back on all that, what she mostly remembered was Lorenz Hellman Gloucester covered in mud, sleeves fraying, looking for all the world like someone she could actually be friends with.

**Author's Note:**

> It's not a 90s high school rom com if the lead actress doesn't show up at prom without glasses so that everyone can realize she's been Beautiful All Along. So like, take that trope, but instead of Rachael Leigh Cook wearing a dress it's Lorenz Hellman Gloucester acting like a normal person for 5 minutes.
> 
> [ Hello yes you can find me on twitter. ](https://twitter.com/Rose3Writes)


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